The wanderer was footsore and weary; he wished to rest within hearing of the never silent waters.
– The Sunday Post on Jimmy Gilligan
Walking along the Fife coastline as a little girl, Louise Yeoman remembers being told about a man who used to live in the caves.
A former soldier, Jimmy Gilligan, found himself homeless after serving in the First World War, according to the tale told by her grandfather.
One day, while walking along the shore near Anstruther, he spotted a hole in the Caiplie Caves and decided to move in. There he stayed for years until the eve of the Second World War, when he vanished without a trace. “I always wondered what happened to him after that,” said Louise. “There was this mystery.
“I thought about the ostnorhyoelivdearyy ttoimme yI gwreenatt aunt’s in Cellardyke and walked along the coast towards Crail past the caves. When you’re wee, that sort of thing really captures your imagination.”
Louise, a historian and producer at BBC Radio Scotland, was chatting to a colleague one day who was working on a story about people living in caves when all of a sudden the old tale brought the memories flooding back. And, although her research normally centres around witches and covenanters, Louise decided to dig a bit deeper into a more modern story and find out what happened to Jimmy – and what led him to live in the cave.
Thinking a man living by the sea would probably have made the news, Louise began her search in the British Newspaper Archive and came across an article from The Sunday Post, dated September 5, 1915.
It told the story of the old soldier who became the cave dweller of Caiplie. “Though he was too old to fight in the First World War, he still volunteered his services. But I wanted to find out what happened to him before that. I found Jimmy born in Aberdeen in 1859. Two years later there he is in the census with mum Sally Strowers and dad John Gilligan.
“Then we find marriage records showing her proper name was Sarah Strauss. That’s really not a common surname in Scotland in 1860, so using that I was able to find out more. Within a couple of years, by the time
Jimmy is four years old, his dad has died. The next year, it seems his mother dies in the poor house. It’s a pretty horrible start for him. By 12, we find him in St Peter’s Orphanage in Aberdeen. He comes out of care and goes straight into the army.
“This corresponds with the Sunday Post article which says he served in Afghanistan under Lord Roberts which would be the Second Afghan War, 1878-1880.
“And then he was in the Boer War in South Africa and the battle of Majuba Hill on February 27, 1881. This was a terrible battle for the Gordons. They were massively outnumbered. That terrible day Jimmy must have seen many of his comrades die.
“That’s when he gets head wounds and leg wounds and we pick him up again after that battle in Edinburgh, again something he talks about in the article. But that’s where we find out he didn’t tell The Sunday Post the whole truth.
“He had a very bad head wound, which never really settled down. Looking into his military records, I discovered the year after the battle he was kicked out of the army as he had broken barracks and assaulted a corporal. He got six months’ imprisonment. He was forced to forfeit his Second Afghan War medal and kicked out on to the streets on November 11, 1882.”
Louise, who presented her research in BBC Radio STrcaovetlls a,nd edlvesdhfouw r the Triimntoe references in the article that Jimmy was “in and out of hospital and institutions”. “We know about this head wound and that he got into trouble,” she said. “I think today we would say he had PTSD.”
Around 1909, the soldier moved into the caves and he was welcomed into the community. A local farmer was also kind to him. In the long nights, he went to the farm for a blether and walked back to the cave by the light of a lantern.
“He wasn’t the first to shelter in the sea caves. You can still see crosses carved out in the rock by ancient pilgrims.
“But Jimmy had one more cross to bear. During WW1 the Defence of the Realm Act outlawed the lantern Jimmy needed to get back to the coast from the farm at night and his life got harder in those years.”
This was backed up by an analysis of the photograph we published. Louise said: “Jimmy is in his 50s by the time he
gets to the cave, but he looks a lot older. We would think it’s somebody in his 70s. He looks a bit like Granpaw Broon with his long white beard and his whiskers. He really looks a lot older than he is and it suggests he must have had a very hard life.”
Jimmy lived in the cave until the outbreak of the Second World War and then he vanished.
“People have various theories,” said Louise. “Some said he must have been a German spy, but that doesn’t sound like him at all. I think maybe life in the cave was too hard and lonely and Jimmy just threw in the towel.”
Combing the death records, Louise eventually came across a man who had died aged 81, in Eastern General Hospital in Leith on January 20 1940.
“The key to it was his mother’s unusual maiden name which stuck out. He died of myocarditis which is an inflammation of the heart, caused by septic toes, which is what you would expect in an old homeless man. And he was homeless because the last address is 1 The Pleasance, Edinburgh, which is the Salvation Army Hostel.
“What happened to Jimmy is a surprisingly modern story. He came from a homeless background and ended up going back into it. It’s a sad ending for him. He didn’t get the help he needed. But it just shows us how resourceful he was.
“Perhaps there’s someone out there who hears about it and says, ‘That’s my Uncle Jimmy’.
“He had a sister, so there is possibly more detail to find. I set out to find the end of the story, but what I have uncovered may just be the start.
“You just never know when you start researching how a story is going to unfold.”